The rise of 'superbugs' is causing tens of thousands of deaths a year in the United States alone. A problem as complex as antibiotic resistance will require several solutions.

Increasing antibiotic resistance is of great concern — the health of millions is dependent on our ability to defeat the threat of infectious diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that multi-drug resistance accounts for more than 150,000 deaths each year from tuberculosis alone.

Without effective antibiotics in health care, humanity would be thrown back to the time when urinary tract infections and pneumonia were lethal. Infant and maternal mortality would rise and ordinary surgical procedures would become risky to perform.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most frequently identified drug-resistant pathogen in U.S. hospitals. Outbreaks of community-associated MRSA infections have been reported in correctional facilities, the National Football League, military recruits, and newborn nurseries. MRSA infections now appear to be endemic in many urban regions, spreading in limited geographical areas, but there is a risk of an epidemic outbreak.

Since the first reports of healthy, young children dying of severe MRSA infections in 1999, the number of deaths from MRSA infection in the United States each year has risen to tens of thousands — outstripping those caused by AIDS.

In March, the Centers for Disease Control sounded the alarm on the spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. So far, the rare bacteria has been found only in hospitals or nursing homes. In 2001, only 1.2 percent of the common family of bacteria Enterobacteriaceae were resistant to carbapenem antibiotics — the strongest class available. By 2011, that figure had jumped to 4.2 per cent.

Possible Cures

The debate over antibiotic resistance often pits individual choice against public health. Patients are said to demand too many antibiotics from their doctors. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC advocate reducing the use of antibiotics in order to prevent resistant bacteria. Demand-side policy is trying to slow down bacteria’s strength — a rapid evolutionary process — and is not necessarily the best solution.

The relationship between prescribed antibiotics and the spread of resistance is not clear. In Sweden, which has one of the lowest intakes of antibiotics in the world, prescriptions declined by about 30 percent between 1992 and 2011. Yet the number of outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have increased. The connection between antibiotic intake and the development of resistance is more complex than a mere link between consumption and resistance.

Outbreaks of community-associated MRSA infections have been reported in correctional facilities, the National Football League, military recruits, and newborn nurseries.

The use of antibiotics as to promote growth in animals may also cause antibiotic resistance. The addition of antibiotics to animal feed was banned in the European Union, against the advice of its own Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition. Despite a decrease in antibiotic use, resistance has not decreased correspondingly. The use of antibiotics in agriculture probably does not play as important a role in the development of resistance as does the increased use of antibiotics for humans and pets.

Another possible factor contributing to antibiotic resistance is doctors’ difficulty in properly distinguishing between a virus and bacteria when diagnosing a patient, a problem that could be solved with better diagnostic tools for early detection. But if more knowledge is to create better medical practice, it is even more important to protect doctors' freedom to prescribe.

Unsanitary hospital environments and the negligence of cleaning staffs have also been identified as contributors to antibiotic resistance. Implementing new procedures for doctors and nurses would create more sanitary conditions.

The History and Science of Antibiotics

Antibiotics are one of medicine's greatest triumphs. Throughout history, epidemics of infectious diseases were a fact of life. In the 19th century, infections caused more than 20 percent of all deaths. Medical science saw modest success in the struggle against bacteria by improving hygiene in hospitals, using disinfectants, and promoting better diets, but the discovery of antibiotics dramatically improved medicine's success — it is hard to imagine modern medicine without antibiotics. Penicillin saved millions of lives and increased life spans all over the world. Tuberculosis could be medicated, pneumonia was no longer fatal, and syphilis, gonorrhea, meningitis, ear and urinary tract infections, and simple wound infections could be cured. Before antibiotics, infant mortality was 30 times higher than today.

Biologist Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotics almost by coincidence. He left his lab during a vacation in 1928 and a few spores of mold got into a culture of Staphylococci he was studying. The mold grew and killed the bacteria. Fleming quickly realized the potential of his discovery, but it took him a long time to develop it into a functional medicine. In the 1940s, he received the vital assistance of Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to develop penicillin. In 1945, the trio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Fleming identified the risk of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria that survive in an environment where antibiotics are plentiful will be able to pass on their resistance to other bacteria through natural selection or by plasmid exchange. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called multiresistant or, informally, a "superbug."

Scientists are not yet certain how antibiotics work on the molecular level, but think that they introduce reactive oxygen to bacterial cells and damage their structure. Development of other new antibiotics started soon after penicillin, with ampicillin, cephalosporins, erythromycin, carbenicillin, methicillin, streptomycin, and tetracycline. But in the last 20 years, only two new antibiotics have been developed, and thus bacteria are becoming more resilient.

Market Failures

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are often framed as a "tragedy of the commons," with the depletion of a shared resource by individuals acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest. Thus, innovation and supply-side solutions are key.

Without effective antibiotics in health care, humanity would be thrown back to the time when urinary tract infections and pneumonia were lethal.

As John E. Calfee has noted, the pharmaceutical industry is indispensable, because success in drug development is seldom achieved without persistent risk-taking.

Few pharmaceutical companies still actively pursue the research for new antibiotics since the drugs are expensive to develop but are used only briefly by most patients. If new antibiotics are developed, they are supposed by be used only in extreme cases, so as to prevent bacteria developing resistance to them. Thus, companies do not have much incentive to develop new antibiotics. Antibiotics are said to provide an example of a market failure, and some say the government should therefore promote related research and even get into the production of antibiotics. The European Union currently funds the research of the pharmaceutical industry in a public-private partnership.

But government can also get in the way. The extensive testing of new antibiotics by the FDA inhibits innovation. Only one in ten compounds tested becomes a drug, a figure that is far too low given the costs of research. Today, it takes eight years before a drug is approved.

Of the antibiotics available in the market today, 75 percent were developed before 1970.

Rather than new antibiotics, research will probably discover a completely new type of solution to infections. The genes encoding antibiotic resistance in bacterial DNA are being studied in order to be reversed. IBM is exploring how nanotechnology can kill bacteria.

The Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act signed by President Obama last year provides incentives for innovation, adding five years of patent-exclusivity to qualified products used to fight infectious diseases. Such qualifying drugs also get "fast-track" approval by federal agencies. Combined with tax credits for research and development, the law provides incentives without further diminishing the degree of competition in the pharmaceutical market as a private-public partnership would.

It’s too early to see major results, and while the GAIN Act offers a promising approach to finding solutions, more needs to be done. The key constraint to overall improvement is the rigidity and regulation of the pharmaceutical market, which curtails consumer choice and limits innovation. Focusing on the approval process would be beneficial: today's process puts emphasis on uniformity, predictability, and security, but, to beat antibiotic resistance, medicine needs individualization, adaptability, and resilience. Introducing competition between certifying drug approval organizations, dual track approval processes, and promoting the use of biologics and nanomedicine would also be helpful. In addition, better diagnostics and information sharing would improve patient and doctor communication regarding proper antibiotics treatment.

Antibiotic resistance is a race between humanity and bacteria. The bacteria's advantage is rapid adaptation to their environment; ours is ingenuity. There is no single solution to such a complex problem as antibiotic resistance. That is why we need to leave the field open for several solutions.

Waldemar Ingdahl is the author of a report(PDF) on antibiotic resistance policy published by the Swedish think tank Timbro. He covers science and technology and has written several books in Swedish on health care policy.

A little dirt never hurt anybody. My kids, 5 and 1, have each been on antibiotics once and I hated having to use them. I don’t carry hand sanitized in m purse, diaper bag, or truck. When we get sick we ride it ot and increase our probiotics intake. These germaphobe parents that drench their kids in Purell are just asking for trouble.

When we were growing up, our Dad stopped on his way home from work and bought “raw milk” straight from the farm. It was only when we moved to more urbanized areas that I first encountered pasteurized milk. And it was the first time I encountered kids with asthma and allergies. Correlation or simple coincidence? I don’t know, but am glad we grew up in our younger days where we did.

Besides the infections, antibiotics kill off beneficial flora in our guts. The average American has had all of his intestinal flora killed off nearly 20 times by the time he is 30 (I actually read that last week in an article on Science Daily. The loss of intestinal flora allows the wrong flora to take over and inflict many maladies on us. Ulcerative colitis, various immune system problems, allergies, etc.

10
posted on 06/03/2013 7:53:29 PM PDT
by BuffaloJack
(Gun Control is the Key to totalitarianism and genocide.)

There are many things that must be done but two things that *patients* in the West (and particularly in the US) is not to demand an antibiotic from a doctor when you have the sniffles,etc.Viruses aren’t affected one bit by antibiotics.Second,when you’re given an antibiotic take it *exactly* as directed unless told otherwise by a doctor.That means if you’ve taken the pills for a few days and feel better you *continue* taking them for the original time span.

We were ordering Clean Well from vitacost.com but now I order Mrs. Myers dish soap and make my own foam soap using the Clean Well foam dispensers. Both are free of triclosan. Two tablespoons of liquid soap added to 8 oz. hot water makes the perfect foam hand soap.

As some who avoids using antibiotics I recently had an incident that showed me what they can do.

A couple of months ago on a Saturday night, I had to drive myself to the VA across town for the emergency room, with a 103 fever that by midnight, I realized wasn’t going away, and plus the swelling was getting scary.

I refused to let them check me in for the night but they did put me on an intravenous antibiotic feed, I don’t recall ever experiencing that, and it was magic, within an hour I was a different man, I was really impressed by modern medicine, and the two weeks of antibiotics afterward really fixed up whatever it was, unless the short 103 fever of a week ago was related.

Right now, my other has an infected cyst and she needs to get it lanced tomorrow. Her oncologist (she is fighting breast cancer) drained some of it but she needs a surgeon to get the rest out. The oncologist was going to prescribe penicillin but he prescribed sulfa instead to fight the infection. I think we might see some return to sulfa and alternate means to fight infection. BTW, he told us that sulfa is quite effective against MRSA, Mom does not have that but he used it for “jut in case” as well.

Yes, but it must be a foam-style dispenser. They are designed to foam the liquid when it is dispensed. Regular liquid soap dispensers will not work for this. I just gather the dispensers that need refilled and nuke the appropriate amount of water. I then add the liquid soap and stir gently. I pour the clear, non-foamed mixture into the dispensers and put them back in their palces after they’ve cooled. I rarely have to gently shake some containers to remix the solution. You can use any liquid soap, but I like triclosan-free. It is also a great way to stretch your dollar. I think Pampered Chef sells foam dispensers but you could probably find them at home stores. I just refill these because I’m too cheap tp buy fancy ones lol!

There are many things that must be done but two things that *patients* in the West (and particularly in the US) is not to demand an antibiotic from a doctor when you have the sniffles,etc.Viruses arent affected one bit by antibiotics.Second,when youre given an antibiotic take it *exactly* as directed unless told otherwise by a doctor.That means if youve taken the pills for a few days and feel better you *continue* taking them for the original time span.

Correct, you are supposed to take them until you're finished or until the doctor says to stop. The anti-biotics are used to treat the side effects of the virus where they also bring upon a bacterial infection. If there is none beside the virus, you just have to suck it up and let it run its course.

I refused to let them check me in for the night but they did put me on an intravenous antibiotic feed, I dont recall ever experiencing that, and it was magic, within an hour I was a different man, I was really impressed by modern medicine, and the two weeks of antibiotics afterward really fixed up whatever it was, unless the short 103 fever of a week ago was related.

In 2003, I cut the pinky side of my left hand open on a rusty nail while getting out of my car. I cut an artery, had it stitched and week later, infection. I was in hospital 5 days with it including surgery. I almost lost part or all of my hand, but I got away with some nerve damage only and perhaps I might have a little arthritis, not sure. It was strep that infected me. Along with the surgery, I was connected to anti-biotics, a then new one, for 24 hours straight for the first day or two and then for half an hour every six hours. When I was hooked all the time, lugging that dang IV tree was a pain. I could have been out in 3 days but the county infectious doctor kept me in until I was cleared. I just sat around watching Civil War documentaries, listening to Rush and Art Bell and watching the Columbia investigation (I went in hospital the day after the space shuttle Columbia cracked up).

BTW, my car insurance medical covered it since it involved the car (getting out). I thanked God since at the time I thought the guy I was working for took care of our medical insurance but he did not, but that's another story.

BTW, I think they need to cut back on anti-biotic use and go with other means such as sulfa like my mother's oncologist did with her infection.

He gets sick and its off to the doctor for some dang pill. When I get sick, he can’t understand my propensity to ride it out.

Sure, I take an aspirin every now and then, and NyQuil is a nice friend for a night or two when needed. But I can’t recall my husband with all of his pills getting well any sooner than I do without them.

My husband thinks I fear doctors, I think he fears being sick. What’s up with that? LOL!

25
posted on 06/03/2013 8:45:08 PM PDT
by KittenClaws
( You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it." - Margaret Thatcher)

"Unsanitary hospital environments and the negligence of cleaning staffs have also been identified as contributors to antibiotic resistance. Implementing new procedures for doctors and nurses would create more sanitary conditions."

That would be a good measure, with more attention to reasonable hygiene by everyone (e.g., washing hands after using restroom). Too many around us are spoiled rotten and filthy.

29
posted on 06/03/2013 9:51:05 PM PDT
by familyop
(We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)

it’s not just over-prescription. it’s not even about giving them when the illness isn’t bacterial, because there’s no bad bacteria to mutate/make stronger in these cases. it is about people not taking the full prescription the full length of time. they start feeling better and stop taking the full prescription, but haven’t wiped it out totally yet, leaving stronger bacteria still alive, and then the bacteria rebounds and the person has a tougher strain, more resistant bug to get rid of.

It’s not a joke; pure 20 Mule Team fine powdered borax works best, but the powdered hand cleaner will work to.
The powdered borax gets into the bugs breathing apparatus and kills them dead, works good on ants and other tiny varmints to.

I refuse to buy antibacterial soap. You have to read labels carefully. 90% of what’s on the shelf is antibacterial.

My immune system is just fine because
a) I wash my hands with (regular) soap and water so that I’m not breeding resistant bacteria in my home.
b) Exposure to a few germs now and then keeps my immune system strong.

36
posted on 06/04/2013 4:42:38 AM PDT
by generally
(Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)

You have to read labels carefully. 90% of whats on the shelf is antibacterial.

I had to learn all the label-ease. My former job exposed me to such a massive amount of the aeromatic hydrocarbon-based type chemicals that I can't even use the soap in a public restroom without the skin on my hands developing cracks and ozing, itchy blisters.

You really want to freak a germaphobe out, call 'antibacterials' what they really are.....

pesticides.

-------

This 'the only good bacteria is a dead bacteria' mentality is [literally] killing us.

37
posted on 06/04/2013 5:25:58 AM PDT
by MamaTexan
(A government that will not defend it's military will also not bother to protect its People.)

You're getting close. Sulfa drugs have a different action than other antibiotics.

Apparently sulfa doesn't kill the pathogens outright; it prevents them from reproducing, thus allowing the bodies own defenses to prevail.

There are two broad classes of antibiotics: bacteriostatics that stop growth and bactericidals that kill the bacteria.

"The sulfonamides, or sulfa drugs, are derivatives of sulfanilamide, competitively inhibit folic acid synthesis in microorganisms, and formerly were bacteriostatic against a wide variety of bacteria and some protozoa. Because many microbes are now resistant, sulfonamides have largely been supplanted by more effective and less toxic antibiotics."

It is surprisingly cheap- less than a buck a quart. I use it in the laundry and for washing cleanup around the house too. I buy it by the case now.

I had an agonizing problem with some itching on my legs - I could not sleep for months, and the doctors were clueless- I soaked them down with hydrogen peroxide poured onto a washcloth, and then soaked in a bath with another quart of peroxide in the water and it went away 100% (applied body lotion afterwards too - a good one, Neutrogena?)

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